FSFE Newsletter – January 2014

From Yuletide to Full-Blown Winter

Many hackers (including us, of course!) have been enjoying the various
festivities occurring around the winter solstice. But, alas!, the time
to dwell on Christmas presents and enjoy a family recess is no more –
the Yule has gone, the year has been made anew, and the fight for
freedom and liberty demands our attention once more. Hence, it is only
fitting to begin with a short review of what 2014 has got in store for
us during the next few months.

Those fond of celebrations should already have their eyes set on
February 14, the yearly occasion when our website turns pink and
heart-laden, and the perfect time to
hug developers and bring
loved ones to Free Software and the
Fellowship.

And while we are on the topic, there will be many opportunities to meet
our staff, volunteers, and Fellows throughout the year. For starters,
FSFE is going to be present with a booth at the Free Software conference
FOSDEM, which takes place on the first weekend of February at Brussels.
Everyone fancying a chat or running low on
freedom gear should stop by. Those who
cannot make it to FOSDEM this year should occasionally check the events
section on our website for future opportunities to
meet us.

Do It Yourself versus Digital Restrictions Management

While we are sure that many of our readers were either lucky or vocal
enough to only receive Christmas presents that respect their freedom,
there are probably some who find themselves in possession of items that
were neither made by the giver nor appear in our sister's
Holiday Giving Guide.

We have a few recommendations for handling such gifts: some of those can
be liberated (e.g.,
Android devices);
developers working to create free replacements to various proprietary
systems would most likely appreciate hardware donations (search the web
for various efforts to liberate various device categories); and you
might be able to hack such a gift to run Free Software.

Whatever you have decided to do with such items, we would love to hear
about your solutions. We have opened a mailing list
thread
on the topic and e-mails to
discussion@fsfeurope.org
(please be advised this is a public mailing list) are most welcome. In
addition to solutions to non-free gifts, we are also looking forward
to reading about freedom-respecting or DIY gifts you are truly enjoying.

Something Completely Different

This newsletter is regularly available in Romanian since December 2013
. Our associate
Fundația Ceata
has taken it upon themselves to provide timely translations for which
we are extremely grateful.

Our ex-Vice President Henrik Sandklef has been
busy
adding
LCD support
to Searduino. The latter post (not on the planet) also serves
as a call for contributors.

Isabel Drost-Fromm's
‘On geeks growing up’
contemplates the meaning of life, or to put it more plainly,
family-friendliness of various technology conferences. The
positive role models Isabel has identified deserve a few words
of encouragement, and to Isabel herself we say naught but
Inductive Bias rocks!

Guido Arnold, Deputy Coordinator of the Education team, has
collected and summarised November news stories about
Free Software in education.

The last planet item to warrant an honourable mention in the
newsletter under this temporary editorship is Jens Lechtenbörger's
‘OpenPGP and S/MIME or Trust and “Trust”’. Jens
explains why OpenPGP should be preferred over S/MIME for e-mail
encryption. Acquainting oneself with the explanation is highly
recommended for anyone making use of, or contemplating the use of,
e-mail encryption.

Repentinus, one of our two Fellowship Representatives, is keeping his
neck warm this winter by wearing a green-black woollen scarf featuring
the Fellowship Plussy and letters "FSFE". Those among our readers who
can knit can make themselves a similar scarf by following
the instructions provided by his girlfriend
(please be advised this link leads to a blog hosted on Blogspot;
taking appropriate precautions (like using a JavaScript blocker) is
recommended). The rest of our readers can either learn to knit or have
someone knit this scarf for them.

Giving for Freedom

This newsletter started with a short overview of annual events waiting
us in the next few months. Such celebrations, while fun and educational,
require the combined efforts of volunteers and our staff to organise.
In addition to requiring staff time, activities hosted as part of the
celebrations require funds. Furthermore, in addition to the fun
celebrations, we require funds to keep our continuous campaigns running,
lobby for Free Software, advise developers on Free Software licensing,
and educate technology companies on Free Software and licence
compliance. Unfortunately, we have not yet secured our budget for 2014.
Our readers considering supporting our work can either
make a one-time donation or
join the Fellowship. We thank all
our existing donors and Fellows!

Donate

The Free Software Foundation Europe is a non-profit non-governmental
organisation. Our work is made
possible by a community of
volunteers,
Fellows and
donors. Your donations are critical to our
strength and autonomy. They enable us to continue working for Free
Software wherever necessary, and to be an independent voice.